What USDA hardiness zone is Dale County, Alabama?

Dale County, Alabama spans USDA hardiness zones 8b to 9a. 71% of its ZIP codes are zone 8b, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Dale County, Alabama?

The median last spring freeze runs March 1 – March 10 across the 4 NOAA weather stations serving Dale County, Alabama, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Alabama

Planting zones in Dale County, Alabama

This county spans USDA zones 8b to 9a, so there is no single zone for Dale County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 71% of its ZIP codes are zone 8b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 8b–9a 2 zones across 7 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 7 7 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 4 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 561 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Dale County, Alabama as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

Dale County does not have one planting answer

Its own weather stations disagree about 12 of the 32 crops in this table right now, so any single list would be wrong for part of the county. That is not a gap in the data — it is what the data says.

Shortest season: 257 days
TROY, AL US (USC00018323)
Longest season: 270 days
DOTHAN RGNL AP, AL US (USW00013839)

13 days of growing season separate those two stations, and both serve ZIP codes in Dale County. The ZIP lookup above answers for one address instead of averaging a place that has no average.

Why the hardiness zone does not settle this

A USDA zone is a winter-minimum statistic. It was never a growing-season one, and it does not behave like one: within a single zone the growing season runs a median 54 days wider at the 10th–90th percentile, and annual growing degree days vary by 2.02×.

The zones also overlap rather than stack — 30% of zone 6b freezes before the median zone 6a station. The zone tells you what survives your winter; the station tells you what finishes before your autumn.

The whole dataset behind that →

All 4 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts March 10 – November 21 as growing season (256 days). Widening to any single station gives March 1 – November 24 (268 days).

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Dale County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 71% in zone 8b and wrong for the other 29%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
8b	5	71%
9a	2	29%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze March 1 – March 10

First fall freeze November 21 – November 24

Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 257–270 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 89.7–92.2 °F in June–August. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 15.4–18.2" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. At the middle station that is covered, so watering in Dale County is for the gaps between storms rather than the whole season. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 92 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Dale County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
36311	8b	Troy, AL	35.6 km
36322	8b	Enterprise 4 W, AL	16.2 km
36350	9a	Dothan Rgnl AP, AL	5.4 km
36360	8b	Dothan Rgnl AP, AL	22.7 km
36362	8b	Enterprise 4 W, AL	21.7 km
36371	9a	Dothan Rgnl AP, AL	9.2 km
36374	8b	Headland, AL	27.3 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Dale County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	January 4 – January 13	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	January 4 – January 13	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	January 18 – January 27	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	January 25 – February 3	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	January 25 – February 3	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	January 25 – February 3	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	February 1 – February 10	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	February 8 – February 17	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	February 15 – February 24	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	February 22 – March 3	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	March 8 – March 17	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	March 15 – March 24	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Dale County

Zone 8b carries 54 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 9a carries 46. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to March 31 to be careful. Median March 1 – March 10 across 4 stations; February 3 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to November 4 to be careful. Median November 21 – November 24 across 4 stations; December 24 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 4 stations behind these numbers

All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 57 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Dothan Rgnl AP, AL	USW00013839	March 1	November 24	270 days
Enterprise 4 W, AL	USC00012675	March 9	November 21	260 days
Headland, AL	USC00013761	March 5	November 24	264 days
Troy, AL	USC00018323	March 10	November 21	257 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Dale County sits in Alabama. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Alabama

Counties with the same zones — 8b–9a

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Shade clothSummer highs here average 92 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.